Chapter 7

Raven and I Bond Over Paramore

I dreamed I was missing

You were so scared

But no one would listen

Because no one else cared

I jumped out of bed and turned off the alarm, as much as I wanted to listen to "Leave Out All The Rest." I ran out of the room, ate a bowl of cereal, and was about to run out the door when my mom stopped me.

"Do you need a ride?" she asked.

"No," I replied. "Raven's house is really close to here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Mom."

"Have fun, Avery!" Mom said, waving as I walked out the door. "Make sure you have your phone with you, just in case!"

"Mom! I have my phone!" I exclaimed.

I took the ten-minute walk to Raven's house. When I got there, Raven and Spindler were already outside, waiting for me.

"Hey Avery," Raven said in a melancholy voice.

"Hi Raven," I said.

"Let's get in the car," Raven said. "Spindler's driving."

"Does Spindler even know how to drive?" I asked. Spindler was the only one of us who was over sixteen, but I wasn't sure if people drove wherever he came from.

"Of course I can drive," Spindler said. "Driving a hovercraft and an automobile must be fairly similar. They are both moving vehicles, after all."

"I really hope that's actually true," Raven whispered to me. "If it isn't... then we're all probably going to die."

I glanced at Spindler, hoping he knew what he was talking about. I quickly got into the backseat with Theodore.

Suddenly, I heard screaming. The screams were absolutely deafening and I could barely hear anything else.

"What's with the screaming?" I asked.

"It's not screaming!" Raven exclaimed. "It's a form of art, and a gorgeous one at that. It's tortured souls tunefully expressing their pain."

"I'm not so sure I agree with the tuneful part..." I said.

"It's Mercy Screams, OK? Don't criticize."

"Can I pick the music?" I asked.

"No way!" Raven shouted. "How can I trust you to not pick some crappy mainstream song?"

"And how can I trust you to pick something that's not screamo?"

"This isn't screamo!!! I'll let you pick the music, but if I don't like it, I can change it."

"Deal," I said. I shuffled through my iPod and found "Misery Business" by Paramore. I clicked play and let Raven, Spindler, and Theodore listen.

"Not bad, Avery," Raven said. "I can live with that."

"What do you think of the music, Spindler?" I asked.

"It's alright. Not the sort of thing I usually listen to, though," Spindler said.

Suddenly, the car came to a stop. "I think the auxiliary cables ran out of liquid gasoline, which overloaded the sensor array and terminated the usage of the engine," Spindler said.

"Um, Spindler, can you please say that in English?" Raven asked.

"The car's out of gas," Theodore explained. "Luckily, the GPS says that Boulder Creek is nearby."

"Good to know, Theodore," Raven said. We hopped out of the car. I saw a river in the distance, roaring past us. Water splashed onto the shore, soaking my sneakers.

"Welcome to Boulder Creek," Theodore said. "This place is way more dangerous than it seems."